Smith: Despite poor ice, some sturgeon spearers find safety and success on Winnebago System

WINNECONNE - Participants in the annual lake sturgeon spearing season on the Winnebago System can spend many seasons waiting just to see a fish beneath the ice.

But in 2024 the biggest challenge was something very different, even foreign.

This year spearers were hard-pressed to find ice safe enough to pursue the unique winter activity.

"I guess the word is 'unprecedented'," said Gary Hinz, 66, of Fond du Lac, a sturgeon spearer each year since 1976. "I've never seen anything like it."

The winter of 2023-24 is making headlines and breaking records. But not for being wintry.

December was warmest ever in Milwaukee, according to the National Weather Service.

On Jan. 1 the Great Lakes had 0.4% ice cover, down from an average of 9% and the lowest documented for the date in the 50 years it's been tracked, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

Friday the ice went out on the Wolf River in New London, the earliest date on record.

The poor ice conditions caused organizers to cancel Battle on Bago, billed as the state's largest ice fishing tourney. The event was scheduled for Feb. 16 and 17 on the Winnebago System.

On Jan. 30, the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office made the following statement via Facebook: "If there was ever a year to say 'No ice is 100% safe' THIS is that year."

When the 2024 spearing season opened Saturday morning, spearers and law enforcement and fishing clubs all agreed: the ice conditions were the poorest ever encountered to start a season.

Open water was found in many places on Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes. Ice shoves as tall as 10 feet lined parts of Winnebago's eastern shore and a seam of open water prevented most access from Stockbridge south to Quinney.

Yet at 7 a.m. Saturday a corps of determined spearers found their way onto portions of Lake Winnebago and the Upriver Lakes.

"It's not great, but where we are, it's good enough ice," said Paul Muche of Van Dyne. "We're watching things closely and staying safe."

Muche was part of a group of about 30 spearers set up on the western side of Lake Winnebago. They accessed the ice on foot and with a couple 4-wheelers and set up portable tents and hard-sided shanties on runners.

The group cut-in Saturday morning, finishing just minutes before the 7 a.m. opening. The ice was about 10 inches thick in the area.

And there were fish, too.

Jon Sauer and his son Drew, both of Brandon, were part of Muche's group. As the season opened they were in position, looking through the hole beneath their shanty. Their decoy, a white coffee cup, dangled on a line about 5 feet beneath the surface. Two white discs were also hanging to the sides to assist the spearers with spotting fish.

At 8 a.m. a long, dark form swam into view and obscured one of the discs.

"It looked like a big log," said Jon Sauer. "It was clearly a very big fish so we kicked into gear."

Sauer threw the spear and a few minutes later, with the help of his son and Muche, pulled a 77-inch-long sturgeon onto the ice.

Fifteen minutes later another member of the group, Craig Kelliher of Hartford, landed a 70-inch sturgeon.

And at about 11 a.m. Drew Sauer, sitting in the same shack his dad had success in hours before, speared another 70-plus inch fish.

The group was set up in an area with 7-foot water depth. The bottom was clearly visible, aiding the spearers.

However the poor ice conditions led most of the 13,000 licensed spearers to sit out this year's opener.

The Department of Natural Resources on Saturday reported about 450 shanties on Lake Winnebago, down from 3,000 in 2023 and 6,000 in 2022. The agency conducts the count via aircraft.

Hinz of Fond du Lac was typical of many sturgeon spearers. This was the first year in his spearing career he wasn't on the ice, breaking a 48-year streak.

He had planned to spear with his son Jeff Hinz, also of Fond du Lac.

"But with this, it's not going to happen," Hinz said Friday, looking out over the jumbled ice and open seams of water at Calumet County Park. "I'll be fine. Live to spear another day."

Larry Bonde of Kiel, also a veteran spearer, said his group made the same decision.

"After the lake broke up a little bit (Thursday) we're out for the year," Bonde said. "There are too many issues trying to get to our favorite spearing spot."

The reduced spearing effort resulted in a trickle of sturgeon being registered Saturday morning.

When the DNR held a press conference at 11 a.m. in Winneconne, no sturgeon had been registered at Critter's Wolf River Sports, a traditionally popular registration station.

Regulations require spearers to register all sturgeon by 2 p.m. on the day of harvest.

Margaret Stadig, DNR sturgeon biologist, said she expected the season to be "slow" and last the full 16 days.

"We're not going to see nearly the amount of fish we normally see," Stadig said. "Ice conditions are keeping a lot of people off the lakes."

The Winnebago System sturgeon spearing season is unrivaled for its size, its long-term science-based management and its cultural and economic impact.

The annual sturgeon spearing season is responsible for an estimated $3.5 million economic impact in the Winnebago System and sturgeon conservation is part of the over $200 million annual impact fishing brings to the Winnebago System, according to studies conducted in the region.

The system features one of the largest lake sturgeon populations in the world. In its 2023 population assessment, the DNR estimated the system had 23,625 adult male and 18,061 adult female sturgeon.

The five-year estimates are 24,851 for adult males and 16,099 for adult females, indicating a "good, sustainable population," according to the DNR.

The annual spearing season lasts 16 days or until a harvest cap is met.

To help protect the sturgeon, the DNR has established harvest limits designed to allow no more than 5% of any population segment to be taken in a season.

This year's systemwide caps are 350 juvenile females, 805 adult females and 1,242 males, according to the DNR's regulations.

Ice conditions were less than ideal last year and spearers registered 1,405 sturgeon across the Winnebago System, including 285 on the Upriver Lakes. The 2023 sturgeon season lasted 16 days on Lake Winnebago and 8 days on the Upriver Lakes.

The DNR was involved Friday in a rescue of two people on Lake Poygan, according to DNR warden Chris Shea. But no rescues had been conducted as of late Saturday morning, indicating that at least so far those who took to the ice for the start of spearing season were doing it safely.

The DNR had airboats and other equipment staged around the Winnebago System to respond to calls, Shea said.

Saturday dawned overcast and 28 degrees in the Lake Winnebago region and the mercury had risen to 34 under partly sunny skies at noon.

When the registrations were tallied in mid-afternoon the DNR reported an opening day take of 58 sturgeon, including 45 on Lake Winnebago and 13 on the Upriver Lakes.

And Jon Sauer's 77-inch-long fish was the heaviest registered for the day. It weighed 113.6 pounds. One other triple-digit fish was taken, a 104.3-pound sturgeon speared by Jason Reinke on Lake Butte des Morts.

With the extended forecast predicting overnight temperatures in the 20s and 10s, Muche was optimistic that the ice would firm up in the coming days.

"We live for this," Muche said. "I expect we'll be out each day for as long as the season lasts, keeping things safe and enjoying this valuable tradition."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sturgeon spearing opens with poorest ice condition on Winnebago System